


Sleeping Beauty

by iam93percentstardust



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, True Love's Kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-01
Updated: 2016-09-01
Packaged: 2018-11-07 18:21:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11064567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iam93percentstardust/pseuds/iam93percentstardust
Summary: After Ron’s poisoning in Half Blood Prince, Hermione visits him in the hospital wing. But after realizing that Ron may never wake up, she begins to consider a concept that she would usually find ridiculous: true love’s kiss.





	Sleeping Beauty

It was all rather terrifying, Hermione thought. First Katie and the necklace and now Ron and the glass of mead. It was like she’d told Harry the night before- someone was determined to kill someone else and they would stop at nothing- or no one- to do so. Definitely scary to say the least.

The hospital wing was empty other than herself and Ron. It was the morning after Ron’s poisoning. He had yet to awaken.

Harry had been there before breakfast but Professor McGonagall had asked to see him. Hermione had assured him that she would stay with Ron. It wasn’t like it was any sort of burden on her.

Hermione had known ever since the Battle at the Ministry that she was in love with Ron. But knowing and acting on that knowledge were too very different things she thought ruefully.

At first, she’d been afraid to approach him in case he scoffed at her. Then, after seeing how fragile Harry was at the death of Sirius, she hadn’t wanted to change the dynamics of their friendship. But then Ron wouldn’t even speak to her these days- Ginny said it was because of Viktor, like that made any sense.

Of course, now there was Lavender.

Hermione knew that she couldn’t compete against Lavender. Lavender was rather beautiful and small. She wasn’t bossy or a know-it-all. She was affectionate and doted on Ron’s every word. In short, she was everything Hermione wasn’t.

Hermione couldn’t pretend that she had ever really liked Lavender. After all, Lavender was a tad materialistic and she enjoyed Divination. But she also couldn’t pretend that she had hated Lavender- up until this point.

In fact, where was Lavender?

She would have thought that Ron’s girlfriend would be first to see Ron the moment she’d heard the news. But it was almost noon and the other girl was nowhere to be seen.

Glancing at Ron’s bedside table, Hermione’s brow furrowed. She couldn’t deny that she was worried. There was a small apothecary nestled on the table, all to be taken when Ron awoke (Madame Pomfrey said that these worked best when taken willingly). Ron hadn’t awoken though. He lay still as death and Hermione had the terrible fear that perhaps Harry hadn’t gotten Ron the bezoar in time.

What if Ron never woke up again? She couldn’t bear the thought. And so, Hermione began to consider something that she ordinarily would never consider.

True love’s kiss.

As a Muggleborn child, Hermione had grown up with the old fairy tales. Cinderella, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood. Frankly, she thought of them as childish nonsense. Who had ever heard of love conquering all?

But then there was Harry, saved by the very thing that she thought impossible. He’d only recently told her and Ron about his mother’s sacrifice and how it was her love that had saved him as an infant. So, it was little wonder that it had taken her so long to think of it.

Even so, she felt more than a little silly as she considered the thought. After all, it could just be the love of a mother that worked. And, even if any love worked, who was to say that she was Ron’s true love? Maybe it was Lavender. Maybe she only thought she loved Ron. Maybe true love didn’t even work and some other unknown force had saved Harry.

It wasn’t like there were any books about love and magic.

That, Hermione thought, was a big mistake and she planned on fixing that as soon as she could. It just didn’t make any sense that there was no literature about love being a form of magic.

Then, there were the ethics of the whole affair. Was it right, she mused to kiss an unconscious person? Especially if said unconscious person was someone else’s boyfriend. She suspected that the answer was that it was certainly a wrong thing to do.

She could seek out Lavender and ask her to do it. But it would be awkward to try to explain the theory that she’d had. Besides, Hermione could only imagine the tantrum that would ensue should it happen that Lavender couldn’t wake Ron, whether or not it was because love was its own magic. She just wasn’t certain of what to do.

But there was one thing Hermione was certain of- nothing would happen if she didn’t try.

So Hermione leaned down.

Right before her lips touched Ron’s, she stopped. Perhaps she ought to do this properly. But it would be embarrassing if anyone were to see her. Even though she disapproved, she furtively cast “ _Muffliato_.” Then, reassured that no one would overhear, she whispered to Ron, “Please don’t leave me.”

She closed her eyes and kissed him.

To Hermione, it felt like fireworks were going off inside her head. For a moment, she didn’t care whether love was magic or not as long as she could stay like this. But she pulled away eventually to see if anything happened.

There was no change in Ron’s breathing. His eyes remained resolutely closed. Disappointed, and a little crest-fallen, Hermione busied herself with one of the textbooks she’d brought. Well, she told herself firmly, what could she have possibly expected form such an inexact magic?

Then she heard, “Hullo, Hermione. What’ve I missed?”

She looked up, preparing to tell Harry that nothing had changed but her eyes met Ron’s blue instead of Harry’s green. He blinked at her and then smiled. Relieved, and a little elated, she smiled back at him.

“Hello, Ron.”


End file.
